Trials and Arbitration

The grandson of Lake County Councilwoman Elsie Franklin is asking that he serve less than two years in prison after pleading guilty to distributing cocaine, a request supported by federal attorneys. Attorneys for Jarrett Danley, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of distributing cocaine, note his close relationship with Franklin, who they say raised him and has support him. Franklin has had health problems for the past year and has missed all but one County Council meeting, earlier this month where she appeared in a wheelchair, since last June. Danley's memorandum said she has been hospitalized for months. "Prior to her hospitalization, Mrs. Franklin relied on...

Related "Trials and Arbitration" Articles

A Florida man who flew a gyrocopter through some of America's most restricted airspace before landing at the U.S. Capitol has rejected a plea deal that would have required him to spend 10 months in jail.
A prosecutor and a lawyer for Douglas Hughes...

Millionaire Loomes Wheeler Jr. will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The 72-year-old man received two life sentences Thursday, more than three months after the jury in his child-sex-abuse trial found him guilty on three counts of battery, two counts...

The Torres family sat divided on opposite sides of the courtroom Thursday morning.
They all came for the sentencing of Santiago Torres Jr., convicted of setting fire to his father's bed and killing him.
But the family had different messages for the...

A 50-year-old Orlando man was recently sentenced to more than five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday.U. S. District Judge Paul G. Byron sentenced Dante S. Giovannetti to five years and...

A Lake Mary man who's been a lawyer less than a year has pleaded no contest to conspiring to smuggle a cellphone into the Seminole County jail to a client, a convicted con man.
Marlon Smikle, 29, was placed on probation for two years and, as part of...

SANFORD — A judge this morning ruled that prosecutors next week may show jurors jailhouse drawings that they say further implicate a Longwood man accused of plotting to kill the parents of a 9-year-old girl, whom he planned to use in a child porn...

Two corrections officers at the federal prison in Sumter County have been indicted, one for allegedly beating a prisoner last year and the other accused of trying to cover up the assault and lying to investigators, the U.S. Department of Justice said...

Two anti-abortion protesters have filed a complaint in federal court against Winter Park, claiming that their civil rights were violated when they were arrested for protesting near a private home.
In the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court...

David Damus showed no emotion as a jury found him guilty Thursday of murder and armed burglary for his role in the death of a 22-year-old nightclub promoter.
After deliberating for eight hours, the jury convicted Damus of killing Eric Roopnarine, who was...

A Christian musician has filed an appeal after he was sentenced in May to more than eight years in prison for having child pornography.
An attorney for Mark DeHaven, a former part-time worship minister at Emmaus Church in Winter Garden, filed the...

The murder trial of David Damus lost its quiet courtroom decorum Wednesday when the accused killer took the stand in his own defense and had a heated exchange with Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton.
"When you lost the Casey Anthony case that...

PANAMA CITY — A former Florida Panhandle prison guard has denied involvement in an orchestrated beating of an inmate and will be defending himself at trial.
Christopher Blake Christmas, 32, was scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday at the U.S. District...

A 43-year-old Volusia County man convicted of DUI manslaughter in a crash that killed a Deltona motorcyclist was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week.Chadwick Dean Vogt's sentence, handed down by Circuit Court Judge Leah Case on Friday, is the...

SANFORD — The man accused of shooting at George Zimmerman will use a "stand your ground" defense in an attempt to clear himself, his lawyer said Friday."That's a good look into the future," said Michael Lafay moments after a bond...

The UCF Athletics Association will be required to pay the family of football player Ereck Plancher $200,000 rather than a full $10 million jury judgment following a Florida Supreme Court ruling Thursday.
Plancher was a football player who collapsed...

Howard Browning is a guy who does not give up.
In 2008, he sued his live-in sweetheart, a Seminole County schoolteacher, after she refused to give him half of the $1 million lottery jackpot she won.
They had a deal, he insisted, although it was...

CBS' "48 Hours" looked at the murder conviction of Crosley Green in 1999 and returns to the Brevard case this weekend.
Green was convicted in 1990 of the murder of Charles "Chip" Flynn in Titusville and was sentenced to death. Green...

TAVARES — A 60-year-old woman convicted of speeding away from a 2005 crash that killed a 15-year-old Astor girl is heading back to prison after admitting Wednesday to violating her probation by using cocaine.
Deborah Crain, who appeared in court...

A second submariner pleaded guilty Wednesday to sharing videos of female officers undressing for a shower, continuing a case that a prosecutor calls a "black eye" for the Navy's integration of women into the nation's sub fleet. Electronics...

After three hours of deliberation and a three day trial, a jury on Friday convicted a New Smyrna Beach man in the 2013 hit and run deaths of two pedestrians on State Road 44 in Volusia County.
Brian Kennedy, 39, faces up to 30 years in prison for the...